Teaching Freshmen to think: Does active learning work
In this study they looked at active learning. They took two basic biology courses (Biology 1 and Biology 2) and changed them from a traditional lecture course to a project based course. In doing this they were looking at how students learn. There were two study groups (1989 and 1990).
In these to classes there were many factors that they missed in the first group and changed to improve the study for the second group. For the first group not all of the students were biology majors where in group two all students were. Also in the first good they didn’t have a group evaluation to make sure that all group members were doing work. The first group had mixed results from the course. Many of the students said that they would rather have a traditional class while others liked the new format. A lot of the students were also concerned about how they would perform in higher level classes.
The fact was that all students that went on to higher level biology classes had the same average as those that took the traditional class structure. Also the professors stated that all of the students from the study groups were much more outgoing, they would ask more questions and they were able to handle the labs with much more precision and a lot less guidance from the teacher and teacher assistants. With the second group the results where even high. Since all students were biology majors they were really outgoing and adventurous to learn the material in this new way. Also they had about thirty min a week a lecture in their course.
This was a very interesting study to read about. It opened my eyes even more for when I finally get into the classroom. Have a good balance of lecture and active group learning I believe will really benefit the students that I will be teaching. Also the two groups were very different. The first time that they tried this they found many flaws in their plan and fixed them for a smother system. This is also something that I will have to use in my classroom. Not every activity is going to work out just the way I plan them in my mind and I will have to make adjustments, even on the fly, to make the students get everything out of the activity.
Teaching Freshmen to think: Does active learning work
In this study they looked at active learning. They took two basic biology courses (Biology 1 and Biology 2) and changed them from a traditional lecture course to a project based course. In doing this they were looking at how students learn. There were two study groups (1989 and 1990).
In these to classes there were many factors that they missed in the first group and changed to improve the study for the second group. For the first group not all of the students were biology majors where in group two all students were. Also in the first good they didn’t have a group evaluation to make sure that all group members were doing work. The first group had mixed results from the course. Many of the students said that they would rather have a traditional class while others liked the new format. A lot of the students were also concerned about how they would perform in higher level classes.
The fact was that all students that went on to higher level biology classes had the same average as those that took the traditional class structure. Also the professors stated that all of the students from the study groups were much more outgoing, they would ask more questions and they were able to handle the labs with much more precision and a lot less guidance from the teacher and teacher assistants. With the second group the results where even high. Since all students were biology majors they were really outgoing and adventurous to learn the material in this new way. Also they had about thirty min a week a lecture in their course.
This was a very interesting study to read about. It opened my eyes even more for when I finally get into the classroom. Have a good balance of lecture and active group learning I believe will really benefit the students that I will be teaching. Also the two groups were very different. The first time that they tried this they found many flaws in their plan and fixed them for a smother system. This is also something that I will have to use in my classroom. Not every activity is going to work out just the way I plan them in my mind and I will have to make adjustments, even on the fly, to make the students get everything out of the activity.
Teaching Freshmen to Think: Active Learning in Introductory Biology
Judith E. Miller; Ronald D. Cheetham
BioScience, Vol. 40, No. 5. (May, 1990), pp. 388-391.
JSTOR Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0006-3568%28199005%2940%3A5%3C388%3ATFTTAL%3E2.0.CO%3B2-B